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Register a new userWhere do the AMS-02 anti-helium events come from?
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We discuss the origin of the anti-helium-3 and -4 events possibly detected by AMS-02. Using up-to-date semi-analytical tools, we show that spallation from primary hydrogen and helium nuclei onto the ISM predicts a $overline{{}^3{rm He}}$ flux typically one to two orders of magnitude below the sensitivity of AMS-02 after 5 years, and a $overline{{}^4{rm He}}$ flux roughly 5 orders of magnitude below the AMS-02 sensitivity. We argue that dark matter annihilations face similar difficulties in explaining this event. We then entertain the possibility that these events originate from anti-matter-dominated regions in the form of anti-clouds or anti-stars. In the case of anti-clouds, we show how the isotopic ratio of anti-helium nuclei might suggest that BBN has happened in an inhomogeneous manner, resulting in anti-regions with a anti-baryon-to-photon ratio $bar{eta}simeq10^{-3}eta$. We discuss properties of these regions, as well as relevant constraints on the presence of anti-clouds in our Galaxy. We present constraints from the survival of anti-clouds in the Milky-Way and in the early Universe, as well as from CMB, gamma-ray and cosmic-ray observations. In particular, these require the anti-clouds to be almost free of normal matter. We also discuss an alternative where anti-domains are dominated by surviving anti-stars. We suggest that part of the unindentified sources in the 3FGL catalog can originate from anti-clouds or anti-stars. AMS-02 and GAPS data could further probe this scenario.
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Grain growth during star formation affects the physical and chemical processes in the evolution of star-forming clouds. We investigate the origin of the millimeter (mm)-sized grains recently observed in Class I protostellar envelopes. We use the coagulation model developed in our previous paper and find that a hydrogen number density of as high as $10^{10}~{rm cm^{-3}}$, instead of the typical density $10^5~{rm cm^{-3}}$, is necessary for the formation of mm-sized grains. Thus, we test a hypothesis that such large grains are transported to the envelope from the inner, denser parts, finding that gas drag by outflow efficiently launches the large grains as long as the central object has not grown to $gtrsim 0.1$ M$_{odot}$. By investigating the shattering effect on the mm-sized grains, we ensure that the large grains are not significantly fragmented after being injected in the envelope. We conclude that the mm-sized grains observed in the protostellar envelopes are not formed in the envelopes but formed in the inner parts of the star-forming regions and transported to the envelopes before a significant mass growth of the central object, and that they survive in the envelopes.
Indirect searches can be used to test dark matter models against expected signals in various channels, in particular antiprotons. With antiproton data available soon at higher and higher energies, it is important to test the dark matter hypothesis against alternative astrophysical sources, e.g. secondaries accelerated in supernova remnants. We investigate the two signals from different dark models and different supernova remnant parameters, as forecasted for the AMS-02, and show that they present a significant degeneracy.
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